Compiler has a few very dim recollections of this great-grandmother, Catherine BEEHLER MOW. Catherine was confined to her bed for several years following a massive stroke. She spent the last years of her life in the home of her youngest daughter, Gladys MOW RIGGS, in South Bend. As a child, compiler vaguely remembers visiting "Grandma MOW" at "Aunt Gladys'" home, but that memory is limited to a child's mental picture of a very small frail old lady in a hospital bed. There is no feeling of ever really knowing the person, Catherine MOW.

On one of the visits, Catherine did recognize her grandson, Virgil, and attempted to speak to him, but could not form the words. Then tears of frustration flowed from her aged eyes; she could only cling to the hand Virgil offered to her. At the time of the next visit, she did not appear to recognize him at all.

Little is known of the BEEHLER family before Catherine's marriage to David MOW. Catherine's parents consistently reported on census records that they were both born in BAVARIA. Compiler has not discovered when or where they arrived in AMERICA, but apparently all their children were born "in the New World." The reason for their being in Sandusky County, OH at the time of Catherine's birth is not known.

Discovery of data submitted to GenServ by William HASSENPLUG, revealed that at least some of the older children born to George and Anna Mary BUEHLER were born in Seneca County, OH, rather than Sandusky County. Catherine's obituary, however, specifically states her place of birth as "Sandusky." Whether Catherine's father and grandfather were involved in construction of one of the canals routed from Lake Erie is not known. This could have been the attraction to Seneca and Sandusky County areas, but this is mere speculation on the part of this compiler.

From the birth ages of the BEEHLER children and the places of birth reported on the 1870 census, it appears that the BEEHLER's were in OHIO from about 1851 to about 1860. Their oldest son, George, Jr. was born in OHIO about 1851; Catherine was born in OHIO in 1859. Franklin, the child following Catherine, was born in INDIANA about 1861. The HASSENPLUG data, however, also revealed the existence of a daughter born to the couple before George, Jr. Her date of birth was 10 Dec. 1849, and the place was cited as Seneca County, OH. This would lead to the assumption that Mary and George were married in OHIO?HASSENPLUG states "Huron, OH . . .14 Jan. 1849." The source of his data is not given.

In 1995, Margarett STEININGER responded to a request for family data. For the most part, her letter was concerned with the MOW family, but two paragraphs addressed the BEEHLER history. Parts are quoted below:

". . . About great Grandpa Beehler, . . . Mable Hassenplug . . .she told me that grandpa moved to KANSAS in 1855 but that simply does not make any sense as my grandmother must have been born about 1859 . . ."(Margarett is referring to Catherine BEEHLER) ". . . and I thought she was born in Indiana. . . .

["] . . . I can not reconcile the dates with a story that grandma Mow Beehler used to tell about when they came from Ohio to Indiana in a covered wagon and got lost. She said her younger sister Eliza would tell their father that the wagon train was going in circles, but of course no one believed a child. . . ."

Margarett's story goes on that Eliza was right and was able to chart their way out of the confusion by her knowledge of the stars.

There must have been some confusion about the incident, because Eliza was born in INDIANA and only three years old on the 1870 census. Still, there could have been some other child about whom the story was handed down.

In fact, there were two other BEEHLER families enumerated near to the George "BEEHLER" household in 1870. In dwelling #105 was a 42-year old Charles BEEHLER, and in dwelling #108, Frederick BEEHLER, age 57, was enumerated. George was then 49 and living in dwelling #107. All but one of the senior members of the three homes were born in BAVARIA. There were six young girls between the ages of 11 and 18 in the three homes, so Margarett's story may well have been true, but with a different "leading lady."

Compiler's attempts to communicate with William HASSENPLUG after finding his data on the computer network, were unsuccessful; however, compiler suspects that he may have inherited the genealogy work of Mabel HASSENPLUG, of whom both Wilma FOLTZ and Margarett STEININGER wrote. Mr. HASSENPLUG's data includes the father and grandfather of George BEEHLER/BUEHLER, and according to his data, George's father and probably one or more brothers came to AMERICA at about the same time.

Mrs. David MOW, former resident of the Grandview neighborhood northwest of Rochester, died at noon today at the home of her daughter, Mrs. Gladys RIGGS, 939 31st St., South Bend.

Ora Foster of the Foster Funeral Home, this city, left immediate[l]y for South Bend. A complete obituary will be published in the Thursday edition of The News-Sentinel.

Thursday, April 8, 1948

Catherine Mow

Mrs. Catherine MOW, 88, died Wednesday noon at the home of her daughter, Mrs. Roy RIGGS, South Bend, after an illness of five ye[a]rs.

A native of Sandusky, O., she was born June 3, 1859, and spent most of her life in Fulton county. For the last 12 years she had resided with her daughter in South Bend. Mrs. Mow was the daughter of George and Mary BUEHLER and married David B. MOW in Rochester. She belonged to the Adventist church in South Bend.

Funeral services, supervised by the Foster funeral home, will be at 2 p.m. Saturday in the Richland Center Methodist church with the Rev. Mr. SOMMERVILLE officiating. Burial will be in the Richland Center cemetery.

A short prayer service will be conducted at 12:30 p.m. Saturday in the daughter's home at South Bend.

Survivors include another daughter, Mrs. Maine STICKLER of South Bend; three sons, Floyd [MOW] of Rochester, Omer [MOW] of South Bend, and Carlton [MOW] of Moose Lake, Wash.; ten grandchildren; twenty great-grandchildren, and two great-great-grandchidren.